site.btaNewly Elected Parliament Holds Inaugural Sitting

The newly elected 52nd National Assembly of Bulgaria is expected to open on April 30.

On April 28, President Iliana Iotova signed a decree convening the newly elected 240-seat Parliament to its inaugural sitting at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

During the sitting, the President of the Republic will address the newly elected Members of Parliament, Iotova's press service said.

Under the Constitution, the sitting will be opened by the oldest National Representative present. In the 52nd National Assembly, this is 78-years-old Rumen Milanov MP of Progressive Bulgaria, according to information on the parliament's website.

Milanov will then administer the lawmakers' oath, which reads: "I do swear in the name of the Republic of Bulgaria that I will observe the Constitution and the laws of the land and will be guided in all my actions by the interests of the people. I have sworn to it." After taking the oath, the MPs will sign the official oath document.

The Bulgarian national anthem and the anthem of Europe will then be played in the debating chamber.

By tradition, the parties and coalitions represented in the National Assembly will make statements during the inaugural sitting. This will be followed by the election of a Chair of the National Assembly, who will then take over the proceedings and will address the legislature.

The MPs will also elect Deputy Chairs of the Assembly. The Chair will announce the formation of the parliamentary groups and their leaderships.

The distribution of seats among the parties and coalitions in the 52nd National Assembly was announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on April 23 following early parliamentary elections on April 19.

The election winner, Progressive Bulgaria, has 131 seats in the 240-member legislature. GERB–UDF has 39, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria has 37, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has 21, and Vazrazhdane has 12.

The CEC's list of newly elected MPs shows that 57 MPs are women and 183 are men.

On the eve of the new Parliament's inaugural sitting, it emerged that Continue the Change had proposed to its partners in Democratic Bulgaria a parliamentary alliance mottoed "Strong Bulgaria in Strong Europe" with the two entities forming two separate parliamentary groups: one for Continue the Change (16 MPs) and one for Democratic Bulgaria (21 MPs).